The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-08-11
FROM LONDON TO COLOGNE
Editor Halford Is Overcome by the An
cient and Musty Things of London,
Everybody Drinks-The Field of Waterloo
Cologne and Its Famous Cathedral.

London for another time. 1 cannot undertake
to say anything of it in my present enfeebled
condition. Just now I feel overcome by
age. Everything smells musty, and il there
is anything. scarcely excepting the bread and
butter, less than SIX hundred or seven hundred
years old do not now recall what it is. ] have
wild desire to embrace the obelisk on the
Thames embankment, or the one in New York,
and claim it as esteemed contemporary, or
sort of long-lost brother, as it were 1t will
be great relief to see something new. Here the
only virtue thing has it its antiquity. Take
even the battlefield of Waterloo. That is
within the present century. but it seems aged
as the battle of Marathon, of Philippi. You
can't gauge battles by years. How hoary does
Gettys burg seem already in our own history, and
Appomattox sounds like an echo from the dim
and glorious bast But outside of Waterloo
everything you see, or hear, touch, goes back
to the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and
sixteenth centuries. 1 am as one living among
the tombs 1t would be quite apropos to drop
down into the catacomb s. and quietly end an ex-
lstence that seems solecism.
Leaving London Monday evening at 8
o'clock, in two hours are in a steamer at
Harwich bound for Antwerp, which is reached
after stormy pull across the straits at o'clock
ing galleries filled with the masterpieces of the
old Dutch artists. Here is also Hans Markart's
work and his studio. So far as the landscape is
concerned, it is Dutch. Holland stretches itself
down this far. at least as far as its huge wind
mills, its neat homes and its well-tied farms
not to forget the dress of the peasantry are con-
cerned. ride Of less than two hours brings
you to Brussels, the capital of the little King
dom, and city that enjoys the title ''Le Petit
Paris" and 1 judge properly enough. E is a
handsome city SO far as its streets and public
buildings concerned. The Boulevard Ans
proch, its principal thoroughfare, is noble
avenue. On the sidewalks the cafes extend
their tables and chairs down to the curb. and
men and women sit there at all hours, but par
ticularly in the evening. and sip their wine and
beer. Drinking seems to be the principal
business as it is the chief pastme o. this people
The poor drink beer, the middle classes
their still Wines and the richer the champagnes.
There is perfect democracy Of bibuousness in
this country that has its attractive
features, but which suggest a good many
things to the moralist. The Palals of
Justice is the principal building, although the
Bourse rivals it in architectural beauty, but not
in size or in commanding situation. The general
postoffice is quaint old structure, a low wall
standing In the center of the main boulevard,
and splitting it into two streets, as they flow
by it toward Lacken, the kipgly residence. There
are pictures in Brussels; gallery after gallery;
yet remembering with a sort of fascinating
horror, the vortex of trouble in which l whirled
over the kiss OF the Siren" just before
/ left home. 1 solemny adjure art Of all kinds,
especially painting and sculpture. Besides, have
no idea I should know masterpiece if I were
and Tintorettis I have seen have been shamea /
ont of countenance by the drawings of the high
school pupils in the exhibition displayed in the
When store last month. 1 am not a candidate
for admission into the art association, but
make bold to say that this is almost the uni
versal opinion of people, although very
many of them hesitate to express their opinion.
The field of Waterloo lies a half hours ride
from Brussels The station is Braine-rAleud,
and stage awaits to carry you Co the bottom
of the Lion Mound which marks about the center
Of the field and is erected on the spot where
William of Orange wounded. An immense
sarthen hill. two hundred feet high, has been
thrown up, and this is surmounted by the Bel
yian lion. a granite four-square pedestal.
The lion faces southwark SO that it affords an
object by which you can lay out the field of |
the battle. The topography of the ground is |
somewhat changed from what it the 18th |
If June, 1915, when Wellington overcame Napo- |
con. and the destiny and history of Europe |
we're changed. Many of the ravines have been |
illed up. and ridges have been cut down, some |
or dirt for the mound, and others by the neces- |
sites of agriculture The battlefield is covered |
with fields OF grain, brown wheat. green oats,
md rpening grass. 1t is all under close cultiva-
ion. quite up to the base of the mound where
tand two three small hotels that have sprung
10 because of the travel hither. But with these
rihing exceptions the great field remains very
much as it was seventy two years ago, and on the
law I visited 1t, but for the deepening color of
vbeat heads, must have not looked unlike it
i'd the day before the allied armies ana the
french hosts changed the prospective harvest I'M
O the harvest of death, and of disaster to the
reat Napoleon There LIE Hale Sainte.
where the French formed line: there was La
,elle Alliance the little stone hut which marked
he English position: there was Hougoumont, the
arm and house where the fortunes of the day
7ere staked and lost. At the latter, the old
rick wall still stands and shows the grinding
orce of the outlets of French, who mistook its
edness for a line of relocated British, the
fusion being heightened from the fact that the
.ngsh behind it. and had Ioop-holed ii.
heir ire through the holes caused the French
o make their blunder In front of Hougoumont
'as where the Imperial Guard rode
. in splendid parade, with Ney
their head, to hurl themselves in
title folly against the impregnable squares
lat Wellington formed at each set. Just
.ere, to the left OF the monument is the spot
here General Sir Thomas Picton fell, whose
lonument stands in ST. Paul's Cathedral. And
, he of o1d Oui VIII |
lay have learned the points from his father,
no was in the Old Guard, the battle of Water
70 was fought over. How peaceful it all seemed
lat afternoon. But for the great monument in
lie center and two others near by--one to the
russians and the other to General Som nobody,
hose name have just forgotten-there is
othing in the waving fields of grain, they
end and billow under the influence of pleas
4Aa a,,iat slnrnhrorS old fam. |